Ye Ci's negative reaction was much greater than Huo Tinglan had imagined.
When he was discharged from the hospital, he was checked over and over again. All his indicators had basically returned to normal, but he was still listless, obviously with something on his mind.
Huo Tinglan apologized to him, and he accepted it completely, and he did not look angry but dared not speak. But when he wanted to take the opportunity to ease the relationship with him, he became awkward and shrank back. Every time he could not say a few words, he clumsily used "I feel uncomfortable" or "I am sleepy" as excuses to avoid communicating with Huo Tinglan.
It may seem non-aggressive, but it is actually more difficult to deal with than getting angry.
In order not to over-stimulate him, Huo Tinglan suppressed the urge to ask more questions and press him step by step. He kept the matter cold for two days and even asked Uncle He to deliver the midterm exam papers.
After getting the spare test papers from the school, Ye Ci tried his best to dispel the strange emotions that had been lingering in his heart for the past two days. He strictly followed the school's midterm exam schedule and supervised his own exams. He finished those test papers in his bedroom and asked Uncle He for the answers to compare with the scores.
He was good at judging multiple-choice questions, and could follow the steps to answer the big questions in math, physics, chemistry and biology. However, he was unsure about some subjective questions in Chinese and English, especially the essays.
If the sentence is too low, I will be unwilling to accept it. If the sentence is too high, it will be pointless to deceive myself.
After hesitating for a while, I finally gritted my teeth and took the test paper to see Uncle Huo.
"...Uncle Huo." Ye Ci knocked on the study door.
"Come in." Huo Tinglan closed a document and glanced at the test paper in Ye Ci's hand. Not wanting him to feel awkward, he spoke first, "How did you do on the test paper?"
"Well, the performance is good." Ye Ci pursed his lips.
Huo Tinglan wore a dazzling white shirt today, with an empire collar and a platinum collar pin through the tip of the collar. On one side was a small stag antler, which showed the power and dignity unique to alphas. His eyebrows and eyes were as black and clear as washed water, and he was exceptionally handsome.
Ye Ci was as nervous as a thief. He suddenly looked away and stared at his slippers: "It's just that, some questions are like essays. I don't know how much to grade them. Can you help me take a look?"
"Okay, let me see it." Huo Tinglan reached out to take it.
The hands are long and strong, thin and slender, with distinct edges and corners between the finger bones and wrist bones, and slightly protruding blue blood vessels visible on the back of the hands.
A valuable mechanical watch was buckled on that wrist, with sapphire glass and crocodile wristband, and a gorgeous moon phase diagram painted on the dial.
The innate handsomeness, coupled with the dazzling calmness and elegance nurtured by money, is a charm that any OGA would find irresistible, but in the eyes of those who are not smart, it seems as if they have just noticed it.
He rubbed his jawbone across the bleeding palm of this hand...
Some inappropriate images popped into Ye Ci's mind. His heart was beating so fast that it hurt his throat. He lowered his brows and put the paper on the corner of the table. "Thank you, thank you."
After saying that, without waiting for Huo Tinglan's response, he ran away faster than a wild cat.
Ye Ci returned to his room and went to the terrace to smoke half a pack of cigarettes in order to get rid of the blushing images that kept replaying in his mind.
Maybe it was because I smoked too much or squatted for too long. When I stood up, my legs were shaking and felt soft and heavy, as if I was dragging two lumps of mud.
He washed up hastily, with his head full of chaotic thoughts, and fell drowsily on the pillow, forcing himself to recite physics formulas over and over again to drive away some inappropriate thoughts. Half asleep and half awake, he felt an unbearable heat rising from his body, and the sweet scent of vanilla floated in the air. Ye Ci opened his eyes drowsily, wanting to turn on the air conditioner, but he was reluctant to give up the sleepiness he had cultivated with great concentration, and fell into a dream while struggling.
And that dream was all...
Huo Tinglan's hand.
The hand I saw in the study in the evening.
It had sharp edges and sexy blue veins, just like that night, it clasped Ye Ci's jaw, allowing him to grind his injured palm with his jawbone, exuding a faint, fishy and sweet smell of blood.
"Baby… "
A voice like a double bass, seducing someone.
There was a tingling pain in the neck.
The feeling of being possessed by an alpha.
The feeling of being an oga...
The dream came to an abrupt end due to lack of material.
"Hmm..."
Ye Ci woke up suddenly.
One foot kicked the bed sheet spasmodically, leaving a shallow and long dent in the pure white cotton cloth.
The bedroom was filled with a sweet and sticky fragrance. Ye Ci's body was emitting an abnormal heat. He was sweating profusely, soaking his pajamas and even the sheets. His face was flushed with the color of a spring peach, and his thoughts were a little confused.
It was an extremely similar experience to that night.
It's just a difference of degree.
… This appears to be a mild and brief fever.
He dreamed of Uncle Huo.
He also…
Are you crazy?!
What on earth are you thinking about?!
Ye Ci sat up suddenly like a fish out of water, supporting his knees with his elbows and covering his hot and embarrassed face with one hand.
He doesn't know what is normal and what is abnormal. He doesn't have a competent father who can correctly guide boys through adolescence. His youth, which was barely surviving under the pressure of life, has never given him the curiosity to explore independently.
He felt ashamed as if he had done something wrong.
Maybe it was because his face was too hot, the heat made his eye sockets sore, Ye Ci's eyes became moist, slightly red, and filled with tears.
He wiped his eyes hard, exhaled, and with a cold face, removed the sheets and quilts that were stained with sweat, kicked off his pajamas, and took them into the bathroom.
Normally, clothes that needed to be washed were thrown into the dirty clothes basket, and the laundry maids would collect them the next day. Outerwear was fine, but Ye Ci didn't want to let others touch his underwear, so he bought a small bucket of laundry detergent, and he washed shorts and other items as soon as he changed them, and then hung them in an inconspicuous place.
Fortunately, I was prepared.
He took out the bottle of laundry detergent, added water and rubbed the sheets.
After finishing washing a set, he didn't dare to take it to the terrace to dry, for fear of being seen. He asked him why he got up in the middle of the night to clean up, so he moved two armchairs and placed them apart, and used them to stretch out the large items to dry.
After washing and drying, he changed the bedding, which took an hour. As the slight fever had not yet subsided, Ye Ci was so tired that he nodded while changing the quilt cover. He did not bother to continue blaming himself and fell asleep immediately.
The next day.
Ye Ci slept until noon, a rare sleep.
The brief mild fever last night has subsided. Ye Ci felt his body and found that everything was normal.
He was marked by a+ in the middle stage of differentiation, and he couldn't bear it after all, and developed sequelae of hormone disorder. He would frequently and irregularly have mild pseudo-fever in the following days. Before he was discharged from the hospital, the doctor told him to carry a few more barrier stickers with him, try not to go outside home and school before the hormones return to normal, and pay attention to personal safety... As for the means of treating this kind of fever, one is to be patient, because the degree is mild and does not harm health, and the pheromone can be isolated and not affect others. The second is to find a+ who marked him before to give some comfort.
Since the active ingredients in the OGA inhibitors on the market are all artificial imitations of alpha pheromones, and these imitation "counterfeit products" will only stimulate the residual a+ pheromones in Ye Ci's body, making him more uncomfortable, the inhibitors are ineffective for Ye Ci before Huo Tinglan's temporary mark disappears.
Of course Ye Ci chose to endure it.
He hadn't been to class for a whole week because of the hospitalization. Tomorrow, Monday, he grabbed a handful of barrier patches from the drawer and stuffed them into his shoulder bag.
If one layer is not enough, stick on two layers. If two layers are not enough, stick on three layers.
Just paste it and you're done.
He got up late, and when he went downstairs for breakfast, Huo Tinglan had already gone to the company.
Ye Ci breathed a sigh of relief as they didn't meet.
otherwise…
Thinking of that shameless dream, Ye Ci didn't know what expression he should use to face Uncle Huo.
They were out of control that night.
But Uncle Huo was simply affected by the susceptible period. He returned to normal immediately after it ended. He looked no different from before and was still as gentle and upright as before.
Only he could not control himself, as if some bad nature, some dark instinct, had been awakened, his mind was full of shameful images and perverse thoughts. It was just a temporary mark, and it was for treatment, but he kept rubbing it over and over again. His legs became weak and his soul trembled when he thought about it.
If Uncle Huo saw through this...
He didn't need to find a crack in the ground to drill into, he could just find a beam to hang himself on.
There were two marked test papers on the dining table.
The most annotations were in the English composition, which Huo Tinglan read very carefully. He marked the incorrect grammar and vocabulary, marked the correct ones, and explained a few sentence patterns. The annotations were more than the composition itself. After the explanation, he did not forget to leave two words of encouragement, saying that he had made obvious progress.
Somehow, such ordinary things can make people's eyes sore.
Ye Ci read it over and over again.
The scores given by Huo Tinglan were very fair, and he did not deliberately relax the standards to indulge him.
He calculated the scores and added them together with the scores in math, physics, chemistry and biology, and got an encouraging score.
It is much better than the test at the beginning of the school year. The ranking may not be that good, after all, even the poor students in a place like Tiancheng Private School have to work hard, but the scores can be said to have improved by leaps and bounds.
Ye Ci folded the paper and planned to show it to Ye Hongjun when he visited her in the evening - if she was in good condition and could chat with him for a while.
Apart from his mother, the only person in the world he wanted to share his joy with was Huo Tinglan.
Ye Ci was stirring the porridge with a spoon in a trance, his cheeks flushed and his eyes wandering.
He remembered Huo Tinglan helping him to clean up his mother's old things and cherishing what he cherished. He remembered Huo Tinglan helping him to study in a roundabout way to protect his fragile self-esteem. He remembered Huo Tinglan writing "three times a day, one tablet each time" on the medicine box. He remembered Huo Tinglan patiently teaching him how to tie a tie and how to eat things he couldn't even name, venting his anger for him, scolding people for him, and clenching his hands full of blood for him.
In just two months, he couldn't remember all the good things Huo Tinglan had done for him.
Too many.
His Uncle Huo was the heir to a wealthy family who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was arrogant but not overbearing.
Like the moon in the sky and the snow on the mountain top.
It seems cold, distant and unattainable, but what falls into his arms is actually the gentle light and the gentle spring breeze.
Ye Ci drank the porridge woodenly.
It was his favorite seafood porridge, but he had no taste for it.
He was thinking about his Uncle Huo. His heart felt tight and his ears were burning. He thought about every detail of the past two months, but he just couldn't figure out why he was thinking about it.
It was the young man's first love.
Love without knowing.